“Fake news” was relatively unheard of last year—until the U.S. election campaign period started, during which an explosion of misinformation campaigns trended. But despite its seemingly rampant spread, fake news is just one facet of public opinion manipulation and cyber propaganda that we see today. Whether it’s a company trying to promote a brand or a political party pushing an ideal, today’s information wars are often for control of the public’s worldview.

Our latest research paper, “The Fake News Machine: How Propagandists Abuse the Internet and Manipulate the Public”, delves into this phenomenon. It also tackles how a group with means and motivations, use of social media, and online promotion tools and services can effectively spread these campaigns. These are the components of what we call the “Fake News Triangle”, which we’ve found to be the pillars of success for any fake news and public opinion manipulation campaign.

Throughout history, politically motivated threat actors have been interested in changing the public opinion to reach their goals. In recent years the popularity of the Internet gave these threat actors new tools. Not only do they make use of social media to spin the news, spread rumors and fake news, but they also actively hack into political organizations.

Security Predictions for 2020

Cybersecurity in 2020 will be viewed through many lenses — from differing attacker motivations and cybercriminal arsenal to technological developments and global threat intelligence — only so defenders can keep up with the broad range of threats.Read our security predictions for 2020.

Business Process Compromise

Attackers are starting to invest in long-term operations that target specific processes enterprises rely on. They scout for vulnerable practices, susceptible systems and operational loopholes that they can leverage or abuse. To learn more,
read our Security 101: Business Process Compromise.